Avoid Sword Of The Stars II For Now

I had hoped to have a review of the game up by now. Here's why I don't, and why you shouldn't even consider buying the game for the moment.

The launch of SOTS II last Friday was, simply put, a disaster. First the developers uploaded the wrong build to Steam. Then, even when players got the proper build downloaded, the game was plagued with missing content and bugs that rendered it nearly unplayable. Kerberos CEO Martin Cirulis issued an apology for the situation, and seems to be offering refunds to players who feel insulted by the game's low quality.

Reading between the lines of the various communications from Kerberos, the studio seemed to be facing a dilemma: Ship the game in its unfinished state or fold the company entirely. Viewed in that light, the decision is understandable -- but disappointing to fans and infuriating to people who feel they wasted $40 on a turd of a game.

There is some hope that Sword of the Stars II could become a decent game with time. The first SOTS came out to middling reviews and a lukewarm fan reception. However, it slowly built a community over the course of numerous patches and two expansions that fleshed out the base game and eventually become one of the better space empire simulators out there. Kerberos and publisher Paradox are promising multiple patches per week along with free new content until SOTS II meets the original vision set out for it.

All the promises in the world don't change the fact that the game shipped in a state that is a complete embarrassment to everyone involved. Both Paradox and Kerberos have histories of strong post-launch support, but that's no excuse for taking $40 for a game that everyone must have known was not ready for launch.

Ultimately, the review isn't up because I haven't had enough time with the game (not least because it is, as mentioned above, buggy and nearly unplayable). I'll have a review up when I feel that I've gotten a chance to play something representative of the game's ultimate quality, if in fact the promised rate of patches comes to pass. If the quality bar doesn't move very much in the next week, expect a scathing review to show up here shortly. In the meantime, consider this a warning against buying the game in its current state.